Friendly Advice
by Celeste.J.Evans
Summary: Kate is have a dilema and it's one of those times when only her best friend can help her out. Set BEFORE the precinct crew find out the Castle and Beckett are together.


**So this is the second one-shot I was telling you about (the other one being Kiss Goodnight which, if you haven't read yet, you should). It's mostly from Lanie's perspective but it's a Kate and Rick scene. So I have two more one-shots planned which I'll try and do before November 1st because after that I'm going on a month and a bit hiatus in order to to NaNoWriMo. If you're doing NaNo let me know (and add me, I'm Celesteia). But after NaNo I have a series planned so we'll see how that goes. And please review (more than one word, I beg you) it takes very little to just tell a writer what you think of their work.**

**Anyways, here you are. Oh, and follow me on twitter **vatrask

**Enjoy 3**

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Lanie Parish enjoyed the quiet. Not all the time – god no – but sometimes when it was relatively late on a weeknight and it was just her and the corpses that it was her job to tend to it was nice to just have the room to herself . Sometimes it would get lonely and she would turn on the radio to the classical station - she smirked whenever she thought of Castle's comment about it being like porn – but it wasn't too late and she was almost done so the room stayed in echoing silence.

"I have a problem." She jumped a foot in the air as she returned from the back room to find one of her corpses sitting up, swinging their legs under the table, casually talking to her. She was officially going crazy.

"Kate Beckett what the _hell_ are you doing here?" She placed her hand on her chest, trying to calm herself long enough to smack her friend upside the head for scaring her. She was going to turn the music on every time she was along from now on – left out a bit of the suspense factor.

Kate, for her part, was just sitting here, waiting for her friend to join in on the conversation. Her jacket had been discarded on the empty autopsy table beside her as she clung to the edges of the metal slab and continued to swing her feet back and forth. "I. Have. A problem."

Lanie rolled her eyes, slinking out of 'medical examiner' mode in favor of 'girlfriend you'd better have a good story for me' mode. "What is it?"

She took a deep breath, knowing Lanie would ask and still not completely ready for it. Where to start? "I have this boyfriend"

"I know I heard;" the M.E. folded her arms "are you going to tell me who he is?"

Kate opened and closed her mouth, looking a way around the giant mole hill that was her discussion about Rick "I-it-I-it isn't important who he is the point is" when Lanie gave her a pointed look she sighed, slumping her shoulders, getting to the point "I really, really, _really_ like him."

"That's a lot of 'really's, girl."

"I _really_ like him. And I think maybe I might…be in love with him." God it gave her butterflies just thinking about the 'maybe's and 'could be's. What's going to happen when she's sure?

"How long have the two of you been dating?"

"About five months."

Lanie's eyebrows shot up. She knew some couples who moved fast but Kate Beckett was not one to move fast when it came to relationships "and you're already ready to say the big I L Y?"

Kate swallowed at the way her heart sped up. Oh god. "If he proposed to me right now I think I would say yes."

"Whoa."

"Yeah."

Now for the real question; done carefully and with intent. "And he feels the same way about you?"

"I think so. He's already said 'I love you' and at first I was terrified and now" she took a shaky breath, a smile slowly spreading through her body that surprised her friend just a little "I get this warm feeling in my chest whenever he's around and I can't eat or sleep without thinking about him at least once." She was officially lost in her own little world. "The sex is _amazing_ but it's the little moments in between that just make it perfect." Oh that was definitely a sigh coming from Kate Beckett's lips. This girl was in trouble. "I don't know what I'd do without him."

Lanie stepped forward to squeeze her friend's shoulders just once, gently shaking some sense into her. "Oh sweetie, you are in love; no ifs, ands or buts."

And then Kate's smile bloomed into this radiant, giddy, girly smile that Lanie knew she'd never seen on her friend before. It looked new; good but new. "Yeah. Yeah I am."

Despite her happiness at her friend's happiness, there was still a niggling subject on the back of her mind. She grew silent for a moment – not that Kate seemed to notice – before she winced, dreading this conversation. "This may not be the right time but have to talked to Castle?"

That brought her out of wonderland. Kate blinked at her friend. "About what?"

The M.E. held up her hands "don't get me wrong, I am so happy that you're in this relationship with this guy that is obviously very special – though I would love it even better if I knew who he was" she grumbled a little before continuing, a little slower and more carefully "but Castle has been waiting for you for four years. We've all known that you two had something special but if you don't feel that way about him anymore you have to tell him. You can't keep stringing him along."

Kate's eyes fell to the ground, obviously seriously considering her words instead of just brushing them off. But when she looked up, there wasn't this resigned sadness or reluctance she was expecting from the detective; she was excited, practically shaking with it. "You're right, I have to tell Rick;" she hopped off the table, blindly reaching for her coat as her mind ran away with her mouth. "I have to tell him that my feelings have changed." She paused again, finally looking up at her friend with the sudden realization of it all "I'm in love."

"You're in love?" The two girls turned at the sound of his voice in the doorway. Lanie looked back at her friend long enough to see the shock and embarrassment of having Rick Castle in the morgue – and having heard such a conversation – but when she looked at the writer, she didn't see a trace of hurt in his eyes; only confusion and apprehension. Like he was processing her words but they hadn't quite sunk in yet.

"Castle?" Kate's voice was raw from trying to get passed the lump keeping her from bursting and bubbling over with pent up emotion. Unexpressed emotion.

Rick simply swallowed, shaking with something Lanie couldn't quite determine. "Answer the question."

Lanie took the stern warning in his voice as her cue to get out of the silent battle. She pointed in the direction of the door behind Rick – as though there were any other escape routes for her at the moment. "Maybe I should"

"Yes." Writer and M.E. looked at the detective with her breathless, gentle answer.

"Wha" Lanie looked between them and this time, only found relief and unbelievable joy.

"I love you Rick Castle."

"I love you Kate Beckett." The two of them flew to each other, locking open mouths together in a joining of passions. A relieved moan came from one of them though Lanie couldn't be sure which one. This was just…way too much but she was too stunned to move. She ended up watching the heated kiss turn gentle and warm, sizzling with the heat of their hands roaming shoulders and necks and hair. Only when his hand started drifting past the small of her back did she finally raise her hands to put keep her sanity.

"Hold up" the lovers broke apart but stayed as connected as possible, hands around each other's waists and chests heaving with the weight of the passion "are you telling me, that this head-over-heels in love, marry him in a heartbeat boyfriend is _writer boy_?"

Rick quirked an eyebrow at her. "I think I've earned the title-upgrade of 'Writer _man_ don't you think?"

Lanie just rolled her eyes. "That is _not_ the point"

"The point is" Kate raised her voice enough to shut them up before looking over at her now-revealed-to-be-boyfriend with something else Lanie never saw in her friend; love, adoration and a softness that was new. "I am in love; and I've been dating Rick for about five months. The only reason I didn't tell you was because I knew you would tell Javi and he would tell Kevin and then the whole precinct would know and" She explained to her friend as calmly as possible but ever chance she got, she looked back at her boyfriend with the same softness "I couldn't lose him in my work life even if that meant keeping our personal lives a secret for a little while."

Lanie, too stunned to really comment, stuck with what she knew: attitude. So she folded her arms, sat into her hip and pursed her lips like this was such a normal thing to see her friend wrapped around the man she'd been pining after for years with more than just lust in her eyes. "And when were you planning on telling me?"

Kate winced "the wedding day?"

"Oh hell no girl, you would not survive if you waited that long."

"Wait, wait, wait" Rick finally got his two cents in; spending them looking at his girlfriend with a familiar and yet all too new leer in his expression. "Wedding day?"

Kate bit her lip but didn't make any notion to wipe the smug look off his face; he'd earned it. "Maybe . One day. I don't know."

"I think I remember hearing something about 'if he asked me right now I'd say yes'."

She rolled her eyes, letting Lanie and the rest of the world fall away. "I said _might_ say yes."

But his eyes grew soft, turning her in his arms so they were facing each other "I'll take it." He leaned down and they met in the middle in a sweet kiss, that didn't move to passion which was almost worse because it was too sweet for Lanie to handle.

"Oh good lord, I'm going to leave before I have to claw my eyes out." But they were lost in their own world, pulling back to lean their foreheads against each other, breathing each other in. Sensing that they would be like that for a while, the medical examiner made her way to the door but was stopped when her friend called out. She turned to find her friend and her boyfriend holding each other like they'd never let go and yet it was so casual. So perfect.

"Hey Lanie? Thanks for the advice." The smile the blossomed on Kate's face was infectious to say the least.

"Anytime girl." She barely stopped herself from shaking her head, calling over her shoulder as she left the medical examiner's office "just promise to tell me you're pregnant before the baby arrives."

She knew she had left a lot of things undone in her office but she decided tonight would be the night that she said 'to hell with it' and treated herself to a drink and relished in the single life. Normally on a night worthy of keeping the radio off in the office she'd end up at Javier's place for a little R and R but tonight she wasn't sure she'd be able to keep her mouth shut when it came to the mysterious things that could only happen in a New York City Morgue.

About half way to her car the shock wore off and she had the sudden urge to kill her friend most likely doing rather dirty things in the cleanest room in the city so she opted instead for heading out to the Old Haunt, prepared to drink the house dry with a few of her friends in celebration. A little pay back for keeping her in the dark – even if the detective was right – came when she pulled out her cell phone and a light, Hispanic voice answered on the first ring.

"Esposito."

"Javi, why don't you call Ryan and anyone else who's free; we're celebrating tonight."


End file.
